The construction of driveways, roadways and other asphalt surfaces is extremely labor intensive. Traditionally, the delivery of asphalt to a construction site has involved: loading a dump truck at a asphalt storage facility, transporting the asphalt to the construction site, dumping the asphalt in a heap, manually filling a wheelbarrow, wheeling the asphalt to a selected location, and dumping the wheelbarrow load at that location.
In some cases, for example, in constructing curbing and driveway aprons in a populated area, there is no convenient location to dump a truckload of asphalt, and the asphalt must be shovelled out of the truck body to the worksite. In such cases, the dump truck often be maneuvered to locate the rear end of the truck adjacent the worksite; in this situation the truck will be positioned perpendicular to the flow of traffic, blocking the roadway and causing traffic tie-ups. The manual filling of wheelbarrows often leads to spillage of the asphalt, which is unsightly, a waste of construction material, and a potential road hazard in that the gravel component of the asphalt may be picked up by the tires of passing vehicles and thrown into the air, where it may impact and fracture the windshields of passing vehicles. Furthermore, such flying asphalt may cause dents in the body and/or mar the paint of passing vehicles.
The traditional dump truck has been improved upon by providing a truck with a storage bin for asphalt that dispenses asphalt from a chute located in the rear of the truck. In this improved design a conveyor located inside the storage bin delivers asphalt to the rearwardly dispensing chute. This general type of rear dispensing design is disclosed for transport of other materials in U.S. Pat. No. 2,490,241 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,585,169. Rearward dispensing truck designs have been found to be unsatisfactory in practice, as they require the operator of the truck to attempt to locate a dispensing trough or chute by maneuvering the truck. Frequently the operator cannot see activities behind the truck because the body of the truck may block the his view. This creates a considerable potential for injury to persons working behind the truck. In addition, since the truck itself must be maneuvered to locate the chute to a particular location, multiple attempts at positioning the truck before unloading are often necessary. Furthermore, similar to the problems related to the use of a dump truck as previously described, the rear dispensing truck must be backed up to a worksite such that the front end of the truck may block traffic.
Therefore, the truck and material handling art discussed above does not disclose a design capable of providing precise and unassisted delivery of a material to a selected location from the front of a truck.